In addition to computing devices, this world’s finest technology promises to help revolutionize sensors, energy storage and conversion.
A scientific breakthrough: Researchers at Tel Aviv University (Israel) have created the smallest technology in the world, with a thickness of only 2 atoms.
According to the researchers, the new technology opens up a way to store electronic information in the finest unit known to science, inside one of nature’s most inert and stable materials. This allows the process of reading information far beyond current technologies.
Dr Ben Shalom, from the author’s team, said: “Our research is rooted in the curiosity about the behavior of atoms and electrons in solid materials, which has given rise to many supporting technologies. We (and many other scientists) try to understand, predict, and even control the fascinating properties of these particles as they condense into an ordered structure we call crystals.
For example, at the heart of a computer is a small crystalline device designed to switch between two states that show different answers – “yes” or “no”, “high” or “low” … Without that dichotomy – c ‘is impossible to encode and process the information. The real challenge is to find a mechanism that allows the conversion into a small, fast and inexpensive device. “
State-of-the-art devices today consist of tiny crystals containing about 1 million atoms squeezed about 1 million times to fit an area the size of a coin, with each transducer having a speed of about 1 million times per second.
Following a breakthrough in the world’s thinnest technology, researchers were able for the first time to reduce the thickness of crystalline devices to just two atoms.
Dr Ben Shalom pointed out that such a thin structure allows memories based on the quantum capacity of electrons to jump quickly and efficiently through barriers only a few atoms thick. Therefore, it can greatly improve electronic devices in terms of speed, density and power consumption.
Maayan Wizner Stern, doctoral student who led the study, said: “We hope that by inventing the world’s finest technology, we can improve electronic devices today and beyond, enabling another way to control native information in future devices.
In addition to computing devices, this world’s finest technology promises to help revolutionize sensors, energy storage and conversion.
